These beautiful ladies put a ton of hard work into the shower for me and I’m so lucky to have them in my life. A huge thank you to them for making the day so special!

Another big thank you to my mom, for offering to host the shower at their house, and for busting out all our awesome old family china and linen for the occasion. We used tablecloths and tea services that date back to my great great grandmother! So cool.

And one more big thank you to Gretchen for being awesome and offering to take photos so I didn’t have to worry about taking them myself! Credit for almost all of the photos in this post goes to her. Thank you, Gretchen! Here I am with Gretchen and my MOH, her sister Jenny.

We had an amazing spread of food for the shower, plus some beautiful flowers and decorations.

The favors were little tea packets with a thank you on them, plus some madeleines. Yum.

The girls were in a frenzy getting all of it ready before everyone arrived! Even my grandmother got roped into helping because she arrived early. 😉

Since it was a tea party, we had all sorts of cute little finger sandwiches. Cucumber:

Smoked salmon and dill:

And plain jelly in heart shapes.

We also had some unpictured hummus and veggies and lots of fruit, including some amazingly delicious watermelon.

And of course, dessert.

How adorable are these mini-pies?! Jenny and Gretchen made them and they definitely won for cutest dish of the day. Delicious, too!

Plus little mini cups of brownies and lemon tarts!

Yum.

Before we knew it, the guests were arriving and the party had officially begun.

I really wish I’d gotten a photo of all the guests together (or at least more of them), but I was too busy chatting everyone up! We had 26 people total in attendance and it was so much fun to have so many of my close friends and family in one place. There were people there from all walks of life — family friends, neighbors, high school friends, college friends, DC friends, blog friends, and future family, too — Matt’s mother and my future sister-in-law came as well!

We spent about an hour or so mingling and eating before settling down to open gifts and play a couple games. The girls know me well and knew I wouldn’t want a ton of cheesy bridal games, but we did play one really fun trivia game.

For the trivia game, when we all sat down, Jenny (my MOH), told us all that she had emailed Matt about 15 questions (things like, “How do you take your coffee?” “When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?” “What’s your favorite meal that Anne makes?” etc.). She would ask the questions to me and for every one I got wrong, I would have to put a huge piece of bubble gum in my mouth (lol).

Aaaaand here’s me starting to eat the gum for answering one wrong, lol. I’d say I got about 60 or 70% right. 😉 There were a lot where I was like “It’s either this, or this…” and then I guessed the wrong thing, haha. But I did guess Matt’s favorite athlete — Troy Polamalu from the Steelers! Even though I pronounced his name wrong. 😉

Buuuuut by the end of the game, my mouth was still exploding with gum. Everyone was cracking up — I’d really recommend this game if you find yourself hosting a shower for a friend. So fun!

After trivia, we moved on to presents. The girls presented the guests with this fun “bridal present bingo” game to keep them interested/occupied during the present opening. They would write typical presents (e.g. silverware, frying pan, towels, etc.) in the squares and whoever got bingo first won!

The girls gave out prizes to the first two winners — they got reusable cups with little Starbucks cards in them. Gretchen was one of the winners and snapped this photo of her prize!

Presents!

My last gift was a fun basket that was a collaborative gift from all of my bridesmaids. I was so touched by how sweet and thoughtful the presents were! There was an assortment of fun little kitchen gadgets from our Crate & Barrel registry, plus this gorgeous cutting board engraved with me and Matt’s name:

And the main gift was a beautiful cookbook they made by compiling all of the recipes from my blog!!

How cool is that?! I was so surprised and I can’t even imagine how long it must have taken them to compile all the recipes. What a sweet gift!

The book literally includes every single recipe from my blog, all organized based on the categories on my recipe page. And since it’s in a spiral book, I can get new pages printed to add to it as I make new recipes!

Amazing, right? A bunch of people at the shower wanted to buy a copy, too!

We ended the shower with some advice and well wishes — my bridesmaids handed these cards out during the present opening and asked everyone to quickly write down any advice they could think of for maintaining a happy marriage. I read through the cards with the girls after everyone left — there was a wonderful mix of sentimental, thoughtful, and lighthearted well wishes/advice from the guests.

What a wonderful day. A huge thank you again to my bridesmaids and my mom for making the day so special for me — I was so touched by how much effort was put into all the little details. And a big thank you to those who are reading that were in attendance! I’m so honored to have such amazing people in my life.

I was so amazed when Jenny showed me your cookbook gift — totally amazing, and perfect for you! I had an amazing time at the shower, and was more than happy to play photographer! I hope you had the best time — the wedding festivities are really only just beginning, after all! 😀

I can attest to the beauty and fun of the day! It was a wonderful shower, and so nice to see friends from various moments in your life, from high school through now, coming together and getting to know each other. It was also nice to see how personalized the gift giving was; to put time and effort into making that very beautiful cookbook is a testament to how well your friends know and love you.

And yeah: the bubblegum business was pretty hilarious So glad you had fun, and thanks for having me!!

You really had an excellente Bridal Shower, everything in your pics are so beautiful. Your best friends really thought in every detail. You are lucky to have them. I saw the details of the little finger sandwiches, I liked it, and the idea of the favors Anne really pretty, the cook book great idea…everything was great, congrats!! P.D. what’s the red thing in a bowl???

What a very special day!! I loved that is was a tea and your Mom was able to use all the family china, tea cups, dishes etc. That makes is all so special! I just LOVE the cookbook – such a unique gift and made with much love! The cutting board is so cool, too! I’m sure your getting SO excited!!

Oh, Anne! What a beautiful and heart-warming bridal shower! I love that everything’s so mini 😉 Cuteness always has a soft spot in all of us ladies. You have such amazing friends! So sweet! And that cookbook is so special! You look stunning, Anne!

I just had to comment b/c my small group threw me a small bridal shower and made me play the bubble gum game too!! If I got one right, I got to open a gift… if I got one wrong, a piece of gum went in! I’m so glad someone else has had the joy of this game hahaha

What a lovely bridal shower…and it looks like it was really FUN! I’m very familiar with the trivia/bubble gum game…it’s harder than most think! The photos of you doing it are hilarious. I also think bridal shower bingo is really a must (the starbucks cards you gave are a great prize). You can actually get a printable bridal shower bingo game from http://www.bridalbananas.com and print it instantly…super easy. BTW, the photos of your shower are really wonderful; kudos to the photographer!